Douche of the Week: company who sued beaten, dead actress’ kids

For quite a while, our inaugural Douche of the Week, Shin Hae-chul, has held onto his title against the challenges of all comers. This isn’t just because he praised the rocket launch of North Korea, a country that killed scores of South Koreans not only during the Korean War, but in terrorist attacks such as the deliberate destruction of Korean Air Flight 858 and all of the 115 people on board.
Shin has also criticized hogwons (after-school private learning academies) for putting undue stress on children, and then appeared in a hogwon chain’s commercials.
He’s also proud of spending hundreds of thousands of won on various kinds of plastic surgery, such as Botox and fat dissolution shots on his face. Says he: “[T]he only thing I believe in [is] how I look.”
I’ve read that he’s been described as “Korea’s John Lennon.” Maybe, if the real John Lennon had endorsed made-with-child-labor sneakers and had congratulated Josef Stalin on successfully developing the hydrogen bomb. According to another article, his fans call him the “Prince of Darkness.” If the music industry has a Prince of Darkness, it’s Ozzy Osbourne (though I prefer Ronnie James Dio myself). What’s Shin done to deserve that accolade? Did he help create the entire genre of heavy metal? No. Shin, you’re not Korea’s John Lennon, and you’re not Korea’s Ozzy Osbourne. The only darkness that you’re the prince of is the one between your ears. And if all you believe in is your donkey’s butt face, then you’ve got nothing to believe in.

And yet, despite his championship caliber douchiness, he has finally been dethroned. Our new Douche of the Week come to us from the Korea Herald, via Brian in Jeollanam-do, via Korea Pop Wars.
An actress, Choi Jin-shil, was hired by a company to be their model. If she damaged the company’s reputation, she was to pay them back 500 million won in damages. She was beaten by her husband, whom she later divorced. Photos of her bruised face appeared in the media. The company began trying to sue her for “embarrassing” the company, not for 500 million won, but for 3 billion. Ms. Choi later committed suicide. So what did the company do? Did they just cut their losses, the way other companies did when Magic Johnson admitted that he was HIV positive, or when Kobe Bryant was accused of rape? No. They decided to sue Ms. Choi’s children, who are still kids, necessitating the appearance of their grandmother, their legal guardian, in court. And guess what? They won.

So, Company X, you decide to sue an actress for being beaten, and for six times the amount that had been previously agreed upon. Said actress is now dead, by suicide, no less, so you decide to sue her kids, who need their grandmother to appear in court on their behalf. Yes, these callous, heartless actions are really going to enhance the reputation that you supposedly value so highly.